Election rally bomber kills 128 people hours before arrest of Pakistan’s former leader
Security crackdown stops Nawaz Sharif’s supporters greeting him as he returns to face corruption charges
NAWAZ SHARIF, Pakistan’s ousted prime minister, was arrested at an airport last night after returning home to face prison for corruption, as the country’s election campaign descended into violence.
The figurehead of Pakistan’s ruling party was held and taken to a waiting plane to be flown to Islamabad soon after touching down in his Lahore stronghold. He was arrested after a security crackdown devised to prevent supporters from greeting him in a show of strength. However, hours before Sharif arrived with his daughter Maryam, who was also arrested, an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) suicide bomber killed 128 people at an election rally in Baluchistan province, the worst attack in Pakistan since 2014.
The blast in Mastung was the third election bomb attack this week and followed the killing of four hours earlier at a rally in Bannu.
During the campaign, the ex-wife of Imran Khan published a tell-all memoir less than two weeks before polling.
Reham Khan’s salacious autobiography contains a series of allegations about the cricketer-turned-politician’s personal life, leading to accusations from his party she is seeking to cause maximum damage to his poll chances.
Ms Khan, a former BBC weather presenter now living in London, has said she only wanted to tell her story.
Pakistan’s election on July 25 will mark the third time in its history the country has had a democratic transition of power. But it comes amid accusations from Sharif that his long-time enemies in the military establishment are undermining his Pakistan Muslim League’s (PML-N) campaign in favour of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-insaaf party.
While Sharif and his daughter are barred from standing in the poll, their return and surrender is seen as an electoral gamble to try to galvanise the party now led by his brother after it lost ground in recent weeks to Mr Khan.
Sharif ’s plane landed after being delayed for nearly three hours and following a security operation apparently designed to ensure his followers could not put on a show of support.
After mass arrests of party workers on Thursday, yesterday began with shipping containers blocking major roads and mobile phone coverage was soon cut across swathes of the city.
“What credibility will these elections have when the government is taking such a drastic action against our people?” Sharif asked.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former prime minister, and now himself candidate for the third-placed Pakistan People’s Party, asked why Lahore appeared to be “under siege”.
Sharif was ousted from office last year after the Panama Papers leak linked his family to offshore companies and a portfolio of expensive London properties. An anti-graft court sentenced him and his daughter in absentia last week while they were in London.